In similar vain to The Hangover and Bridesmaids comes Rough Night. This new comedy is about a bachelorette party that goes wrong when the partying women accidently kill a male stripper and have to find a way to avoid the penalties. Rough Night stars Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, Zoë Kravitz, Paul W. Downs, Demi Moore, Ty Burrell and Dean Winters.

Image via Sony

This is a typical story for a movie like this, best friends when they were younger but when they enter the real world, things change and people change. We have seen similar stories about friends growing up then trying to come back together but realising there is a reason they don’t talk anymore. Rough Night does not really offer much new to that style of film, the girls reminisce about the good old days, comment on how busy everyone is, then have an argument about why they don’t see each other, only to make up. The benefit for Rough Night is the dynamic between most of the characters, because the plot of killing the stripper is not as funny as it possible could have been.

Image via Collider

The strongest part of this movie was the cast; with some very talented and funny young actress leading the way. The dynamic between the group is fantastic and the women work off each other perfectly. Scarlett Johansson is a strong lead, as always, but not as funny as she probably could have been. That is more a fault of the writing more than her acting, since the role requires a more uptight character. As an Australian, I am a bit annoyed they couldn’t find a young Aussie girl to fit in but Kate McKinnon did a solid job. The main problem was her accent, whilst it is an ‘Aussie’ accent, she sounds like she’s been listening to Julia Gillard and Pauline Hanson speeches whilst watching Kath and Kim. She even manages to bring some Australian humour with the joke about ‘Vegemite’, the exchange rate and the difference between ‘Aussies and Kiwis’. I thought I was going to hate her character from the trailers and actually enjoyed her the most. On the flip side to her is Jillian Bell, an actress I am yet to enjoy in any movie I have seen her in. From the start her character is more annoying than humorous, clinging to Scarlett Johansson making others uncomfortable. Most of her jokes fell flat and I found myself cringing.

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Very quickly in the movie I was engaged by the performances of Ilana Glazer and Zoë Kravitz. I had not seen anything that Glazer had done in the past but now I want to and Kravitz is an actress I have enjoyed watching, I hope she can get more lead work in big movies, where she can highlight her talents as an actress.

Ty Burrell and Demi Moore have a solid cameo as a couple of swingers who take an interest in the group. It is fun to see Burrell in a different light given his character on Modern Family, where he goes from playing an awkward dad to playing an awkward neighbour.

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There was no real laugh out loud moments, but it still had some good laughs. It never achieved the raunchiness of a Bridesmaids or the craziness of The Hangover, which is shocking since someone dies in this. The movie never achieves the shock factor it was going for, nor does it have any gut busting laughs. The only advantage this movie has is the type of humour in it does not lean towards one gender, so the target audience is a lot broader. I definitely enjoyed this more than Baywatch.

Recommendations:

If you have a group of friends wanting a night out, have some drinks and check this out. It would also do the same thing as a Netflix movie. See it if you like the marketing but don’t expect an all out laughing fest.